Remakes are the margarine of the film industry, bland substitutes lacking in a certain richness and flavor.

Anyone who wasted money on Gus Van Sant’s ridiculous shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” knows this to be true.

When word got out that Matt Reeves, director of the jitterfest “Cloverfield,” had signed up to redo the Swedish vampire film “Let the Right One In,” fans of the original, and the novel it’s based on, rebelled with Tea Party-like outrage.